By Chadwick H Saxelid

In 1977, peaceful Verde Valley stopped being peaceful. That is when it became the setting for the low-budget sci-fi horror movie classic Kingdom of the Spiders.

When the overuse of insecticides kills off the spiders’ food supply, the arachnids are forced to begin hunting different kinds of prey to survive - livestock and household pets. When those food sources are exhausted, the people in a small Arizona town suddenly find themselves in the middle of a predatory migration, and they are at the top of the menu.

“I was asked by a wealthy acquaintance to come up with an idea for a low budget horror movie, which he might be willing to finance,” co-writer/co-producer Jeffrey Sneller explains. “My acquaintance suggested that Arch Oboler [writer of the famous old time radio show Lights Out] might have something interesting in his archives, [but] Steve and I had already decided [to do] something original.”

“Jeff and I were having lunch one day and were discussing horror movies we had seen in the past; in particular, the ones that had not frightened us,” co-writer Stephen Lodge says. “We asked one another what did we think would scare us. We both said ‘spiders’ at the same time. So we went to the library, checked out a book on spiders and started writing that day.”

Sneller adds, “We knew we hit on an idea that no one else had done before. But as we wrote, we both felt that there was something lacking in the story, a plausible explanation.” Then Sneller attended a college course in environmental studies. “It was so obvious,” he says. “An ecological imbalance caused by the excessive use of pesticides...the first eco disaster [in a] film not caused by radiation.”

The film’s Associate Producer, J. Bond Johnson, agrees, “We were trying then to advance a subtle message about the dangers inherent in disturbing the ecological balance in nature. Did we accomplish our goal? Have the problems changed since 1977? Or perhaps they have just intensified!”

“Jeff and I used Hitchcock’s The Birds as our model,” Lodge says. To which Sneller adds, “Steve and I were definitely inspired by The Birds, Jaws, and [others]. We wanted our picture to join the ranks of the ‘50s sci-fi movies hall of fame list we both grew up on.”

Prior to filming, Sneller and Lodge’s script was rewritten by the team of Richard [Piranha] Robinson and Allan Caillou. An arbitration decision by the Writer’s Guild of America (the union representing writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable and new media industries) let the polishers get the screenwriting credit while Lodge and Sneller were bumped to a Story By.

“I knew nothing about WGA arbitration back then,” Lodge says. “Today, I’d at least submit Jeff’s and my original script, which was not done, to the best of my knowledge.”
“As far as the writing credits are concerned,” Sneller says, “I was a producer, and therefore, my contribution was not given the same weight as a writer for hire.”

Sneller continues, “The contributions by both Richard Robinson and Allan Caillou were substantial and improved the material considerably. Richard brought life to the characters [and] Allan helped straighten out the story and added a few more action scenes, which the script desperately needed.”

Lodge’s opinion on the script revision is quite different: “I’m having a difficult time understanding what Jeff means by ‘substantial’ and ‘considerably’,” he says. “Most of the changes, in my opinion, did not alter the storyline. Two characters were combined to make one, and several names were changed; the location of the story was changed from mountains to desert; Rack [William Shatner] became a cowboy type instead of a city dweller.”

A novel based on the film, adapted by Bernhardt J. Hurwood and published by Ace, credits Sneller and Lodge’s screen story. “No mention of the re-write guys,” Lodge says.

Kingdom of the Spiders was filmed in Sedona and Cottonwood, Arizona with a cast of thousands. Thousands of spiders that is, as well as their stunt doubles. “As I recall, we had 5,000 live tarantulas and 10,000 mockups, but I may be off on these numbers,” Sneller says.

Garland’s Lodge, a rustic attraction located in Oak Creek Canyon about eight miles north of Sedona, became [Emma] Washburn’s Lodge, where Rack and his companions become trapped in the final reel. The attack on the town was filmed on Cottonwood’s historic main street.

“The day they began shooting the spider attack on the town’s main street, both Jeff and I turned to one another with feelings of relief – we knew then that the movie was finally a reality,” Lodge recalls.

To read the rest of this article, please order B-Movies Quarterly #5.